Recovering important data from an old profile

A Firefox profile stores all of your important data, such as your bookmarks, history, cookies, and passwords. This article explains how to copy the files to a new profile, lists important files in the profile and describes what information is stored in these files.

If you are having a problem with Firefox then sometimes, rather than trying to find and fix the exact cause of the problem, it is easier just to make a new Firefox profile and copy your most important data over to it. The Refresh Firefox feature will do this for you automatically (see this article for details). When you refresh Firefox, it creates an "Old Firefox Data" folder on your desktop, which contains a complete backup of your old profile.

Note: Because your preferences and extensions are often the causes of problems, this article does not explain how to copy these between profiles. Therefore, if you follow the steps in this article, you will have to reinstall your extensions and reconfigure your Firefox preferences afterward.

Create a new Firefox profile

Copying files between profile folders

Important: Firefox must be closed down while copying files between profile folders. Also, Step 1 refers to your "old" profile folder - the profile containing data you want to copy to a new profile. If you can't open a profile from within Firefox, see Finding your profile without opening Firefox.

Open your profile folder:

Click the menu button
, click Help and select Troubleshooting Information.From the Help menu, choose Troubleshooting Information. The Troubleshooting Information tab will open.

Under the Application Basics section, click on Open FolderShow in FinderOpen Directory. A window will open that contains your profile folder.Your profile folder will open.

Click the Firefox menu
, then click Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen, then click Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu
, then click Quit.

Right-clickHold down the control key while you click
on a file you want to copy and choose Copy.

Open the new Firefox profile folder.

Right-clickHold down the control key while you click
inside the profile folder and choose Paste Item.

Repeat steps 3-5 for each file you wish to transfer over to your new profile folder.

While copying your personal data from an old Firefox profile to a new Firefox profile, it is possible that you could copy over the file that is causing the problem you are trying to get rid of! The more files you copy over, the greater the chance of this happening. It is therefore recommended that:

You copy over only the minimal amount of files that contain your most important data that you simply can't live without.

You copy over a few files at a time, and then check that the problem you are trying to get rid of hasn't returned.

Note: By default, Windows hides the AppData folder where Firefox stores your profile. To set Windows to show hidden files and folders, see Show hidden files - Windows Help.

Your important data and their files

Bookmarks, Downloads and Browsing History

places.sqlite

This file contains all your Firefox bookmarks and lists of files you have downloaded and of websites you have previously visited. For more information, see Bookmarks in Firefox.

favicons.sqlite

This file stores website favicon images. It's best to also include this file when recovering the places.sqlite file.

Passwords

Your passwords are stored in two different files, both of which are required:

key4.db - This file stores your key database for your passwords. To transfer saved passwords, you must copy this file along with the following file.

Site-specific preferences

permissions.sqlite

This file stores many of your Firefox permissions that are decided on a per-site basis. For example, it stores which sites are allowed to, or blocked from setting cookies, installing extensions, showing images, displaying popups, etc.

Search engines

Personal dictionary

persdict.dat

This file stores any custom words you have added to Firefox's dictionary. If you have never added a custom word to the Firefox dictionary, then you will not have this file. For more information see How do I use the Firefox spell checker?.

Cookies

cookies.sqlite

Cookies are used by websites for a variety of reasons, some of which include keeping you logged in to a website you have previously logged in to, remembering any preferences a website has allowed you to set, authenticating you as a person who has visited a specific website before, etc.

Security certificate settings

cert9.db

This file stores all your security certificate settings and any SSL certificates you have imported into Firefox.